Wednesday, 11 July 2012

Water out of thin air

I love this project devised by the ever-resourceful Architecture + Vision. The practice, which specialises in interesting looking forms that do amazing things in hostile environments, has come up with 'WarkaWater' which it will exhibit at the Venice Biennale.

Looking like a giant bottle shaped basket, a couple of storeys high, and made from bamboo or reeds, it is intended to harvest water from the air, and specifically from fog. The architects designed it for northern Ethiopia, where fetching water is a huge and onerous part of daily life for women and children. Instead the WarkaWater (named after a local sheltering tree) can be built on the edge of a village, using local skills, and can gather and store water. A prototype has already been built in Ethiopia, and another in Venice. The one for the Biennale will be the third.